Local Police Area Commanders

Learn more about the structure and duties of Thames Valley Police’s Local Police Area Commanders.

Superintendent Tim Metcalfe

LPA Commander - Aylesbury

Supt Tim Metcalfe joined Thames Valley Police in 2014, moving from West Midlands Police. Before becoming the LPA Commander for Aylesbury Vale in July 2017, he was Chief of Staff to Chief Constable Sara Thornton, the chair of the National Police Chiefs’ Council.

Superintendent Shaun Virtue

LPA Commander - Bracknell and Wokingham

Operational policing has formed most of Supt Shaun Virtue’s career with Thames Valley Police. Prior to becoming LPA Commander for Bracknell and Wokingham he was the Head of Tactical Firearms for TVP and Hampshire. He has covered a range of deployments from domestic situations and organised crime through to Counter Terrorism threats.

Prior to this, Shaun was the Deputy LPA Commander at Reading, successfully introducing neighbourhood policing, directing operational policing and contributing towards a number of innovative multi-agency programmes to safeguard vulnerable people and reduce crime.

Having served at Bracknell Forest area previously as the Community and Partnership Inspector and been a Wokingham resident himself, Shaun is committed to using his own experiences in the area to ensure policing services remain concentrated on what matters most to our communities.

Superintendent Mark Johns

LPA Commander - Cherwell and West Oxfordshire

Mark has 22 years’ service and originally joined Devon and Cornwall Constabulary in 1995.

His first job as a Constable was in South East Cornwall where he specialised as both a Community Constable and a Detective on CID. He later moved to Plymouth and worked in a number of roles and became the Detective Sergeant for the Community Safety Team including Public Protection where he was part of the team who introduced the MARAC (Multi-Agency Risk Assessment Conference) across the City.

He moved to Thames Valley Police in 2006 where he has worked in various roles across Oxfordshire. He was a Patrol/Neighbourhood Inspector in West Oxfordshire before returning to CID, in South Oxfordshire in 2008. He worked in Force CID as a Detective Inspector and Detective Chief Inspector, leading complex and serious crime investigations, before being promoted as a Superintendent as Head of People Services and Learning and Professional Development.

In June 2017 he took up the role of LPA Commander for Cherwell and West LPA.

Superintendent Neil Kentish

LPA Commander - Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire

Superintendent Neil Kentish joined Thames Valley Police in 2015 after serving in the Metropolitan Police for 15 years and became the LPA Commander for Chiltern and South Buckinghamshire in 2018.

Frontline and public order policing have been keen interest of Neil’s throughout his career. Neil worked in response and neighbourhood roles with the Metropolitan Police in boroughs including Camden, Haringey and Kilburn. In 2004 Neil served as the first Safer Neighbourhoods Officer for White Hart Lane. He also worked in Territorial Policing ahead of the 2012 London Olympics to develop the capability of Special Constables in the force.

Neil transferred to Thames Valley Police as Deputy Commander for Aylesbury Vale in 2015 and then moved to Milton Keynes in 2017 to perform the same role.

Superintendent Yvette Hitch

LPA Commander - Milton Keynes

Supt Yvette Hitch was previously LPA Commander for Chiltern and South Bucks before taking over as LPA Commander for Milton Keynes in June 2017.

She has been a police officer for almost 30 years, having joined Thames Valley Police (TVP) as a police sergeant in 1997, moving from Staffordshire police where her policing career began.

Prior to her move to Chiltern and South Bucks in 2015, Supt Hitch was the Deputy LPA Commander for Oxford City.

Superintendent Joe Kidman

LPA Commander - Oxford

Supt Joe Kidman joined Thames Valley Police in 1994 having come to the area as a student at Oxford University. He started as a patrol officer in Reading, before returning to Oxford where he served as the Community Beat Sergeant for Blackbird Leys, Rosehill and Littlemore, as well as a patrol and custody Sergeant.

After detective and uniform roles across the Thames Valley, as a Detective Chief Inspector Joe was appointed Senior Investigating Officer for Major Crime based in Oxfordshire. Here, he led murder investigations as well as the Operation Bullfinch investigation into Child Sexual Exploitation in Oxford. On promotion to Detective Superintendent, he led the Force’s Protecting Vulnerable People Department.

Superintendent Stan Gilmour

LPA Commander - Reading

Superintendent Stan Gilmour took over as the Reading Area Commander in August 2015. Stan’s previous role as a Detective Superintendent was a post that he thoroughly enjoyed, and it saw him getting involved in a wide range of policing activities. He is delighted to move to Reading and take on the policing challenges that a large and diverse town gives as well as embracing the opportunities it brings.

Stan joined Thames Valley Police in July 1993 and spent the first 10 years of his service in Reading. He qualified as a detective and rose through the ranks in a variety of roles working across Thames Valley and nationally.

Superintendent Sarah Grahame

LPA Commander - Slough

Superintendent Sarah Grahame took over as LPA Commander for Slough in March 2018. She has been with Thames Valley Police for 9 years after transferring from Surrey Police. She has brought a wealth of experience to Slough having previously been Deputy Commander for Bracknell and Wokingham, Windsor and Maidenhead, and the Chiltern and South Bucks LPAs, as well as serving in a number of investigative and frontline roles throughout her career.

Superintendent Rory Freeman

LPA Commander - South Oxfordshire and the Vale of White Horse

Superintendent Rory Freeman joined Thames Valley Police in 1992 and has served at stations across Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. His previous roles include specialising in Public Order, Neighbourhood Policing and Criminal Justice.

He is a strong believer in delivering a more integrated and efficient approach to policing through closer working with statutory partners, businesses and the voluntary sector.

Superintendent Jim Weems

LPA Commander - West Berkshire

Superintendent Jim Weems is currently the Local Police Area (LPA) Commander for West Berkshire; a mixture of large rural communities, the market towns of Newbury, Hungerford and Pangbourne plus urban areas on the outskirts of Reading. Jim started with Thames Valley Police in 1993 and worked most of his uniform service in Reading and Oxford. Prior to taking up his command in West Berkshire, Jim worked within the Joint Operations Unit (JOU) where he led on wider collaboration with Hampshire Constabulary on Public Order Policing and Specialist Search. Jim also spent two years developing Neighbourhood Policing strategies to improve Thames Valley Police’s approach to policing the night time economy and rural crime.

Superintendent Colin Hudson

LPA Commander - Windsor and Maidenhead

Supt Colin Hudson took over as the Windsor and Maidenhead Commander in February 2018.

He is the first Superintendent to join Thames Valley Police after successfully completing the national Direct Entry Superintendent programme. With a degree in physics and longstanding career in software engineering within the mobile telecommunications sector, Supt Hudson brings a mix of skills and experience to support the digital ambitions of the force.

Having delivered multiple complex projects for a range of small, medium and large companies, including the rollout of Sky’s first internet service, he brings a fresh perspective to policing in Windsor and Maidenhead.

Superintendent Kevin Brown

LPA Commander - Wycombe

Superintendent Kevin Brown joined Thames Valley Police in 1988. He has had a varied and operationally-focused career, having spent the majority of his uniform service as a response officer, Sergeant and Inspector predominantly covering Slough as well as Windsor, Ascot, Maidenhead and Bracknell. He also spent three years as a Roads Policing Officer at Taplow.

Kevin’s non uniform roles have included Detective Sergeant on the Force Surveillance Team for five years and Detective Inspector for Proactive teams, where he ran several large covert operations. He then took on the role of Detective Chief Inspector for Protecting Vulnerable People across East Berkshire before becoming the Detective Chief Inspector at Slough.

Following this Kevin became a Senior Investigating Officer for major crimes and kidnaps across Thames Valley, successfully investigating many murders and high profile cases.

Prior to his promotion and Superintendent role at Wycombe, Kevin was the temporary Detective Superintendent Force Authorising Officer for a year, responsible for TVP’s Source Handling and sanctioning covert operations for all of the South East regional forces.